Kreator - Endless Pain. 7 years ago, and this album still kicks ass! I remember how I was surprised when "Total Death" ripped my ears!The next album was "Pleasure to Kill" and the next - "Scream Bloody Gore" by Death.

The first extreme album I heard in its entirety was Soilent Green's "Sewn Mouth Secrets". I was just getting into metal in '98 and bought Pit Magazine. The sample CD had the song "Her Unsober Ways", and I couldn't believe how extreme it sounded. I bought the album the next week. Before that, Pantera was as extreme as I'd heard.

Slayer - "Show No Mercy" at 11 years or so. the scream on "Evil Has No Boundaries" was one of the most brutal things i have listened at that time (mostly Iron Maiden and some punk and hard rock bands). same with Metallica's "Kill' Em All", the music was so fucking intense. when i discovered Sepultura through an older friend (he burned me "Arise" on a cd-r and give me "Bestial Devastation / Morbid Visions" on original tape) i felt in love with faster and raw Metal. Some years later, a friend in school dubbed me on tape a copy of Mayhem's "De Misteriis Dom Sathanas". That was my first encounter with Black Metal

Maybe not the most Extreme bands, but that was the gate to Thrash, Black and Death Metal to me.

If I was to go waaaaay back I'd have to say Hell Awaits when I was 9 or 10. The title track is some pretty dark shit. Slayer would be the band to get me into metal years later in 1998 with Diablous in Musica. Not sure what the most extreme thing I heard first would have been but Immortal's Battle's in the North was my introduction to Black Metal. That became my new benchmark for extreme at the time.

For me, it was Reign in Blood by Slayer in 1995, aged 12. I really didn't like it and subsequently sold it. When I began listening to extreme metal consistently, I bought it again, and then sold it again about 5 years later. I bought it for the third time and lost it about 3 years ago...Similar situation with Morbid Visions by Sepultura.

But the album that actually really made me love extreme metal was Dusk and Her Embrace by Cradle of Filth. It blew me away when I heard it, and really pushed me towards seeking out other black metal artists (yeah yeah, Cradle aren't really BM, but in 1997 they were often mentioned in the same breath as bands like Darkthrone and Mayhem). I'll always love the feeling that Dusk brings about...

For me, it was Reign in Blood by Slayer in 1995, aged 12. I really didn't like it and subsequently sold it. When I began listening to extreme metal consistently, I bought it again, and then sold it again about 5 years later. I bought it for the third time and lost it about 3 years ago...Similar situation with Morbid Visions by Sepultura.

But the album that actually really made me love extreme metal was Dusk and Her Embrace by Cradle of Filth. It blew me away when I heard it, and really pushed me towards seeking out other black metal artists (yeah yeah, Cradle aren't really BM, but in 1997 they were often mentioned in the same breath as bands like Darkthrone and Mayhem). I'll always love the feeling that Dusk brings about...

My roommate in military school, back in 1994, had Tomb of the Mutilated and Sinister Slaughter. I really didn't take the stuff seriously but it intrigued me. The following year a senior in my high school hooked me up with tapes from Nuclear Death, Napalm Death, Carcass, and Cancer and that's when I actually really first listened to extreme metal.

Now get off my lawn you young whippersnappers!

_________________

Hircine wrote:

Step 1 for 'How not to create evil atmosphere on a death metal album':

For me, it was Reign in Blood by Slayer in 1995, aged 12. I really didn't like it and subsequently sold it. When I began listening to extreme metal consistently, I bought it again, and then sold it again about 5 years later. I bought it for the third time and lost it about 3 years ago...Similar situation with Morbid Visions by Sepultura.

But the album that actually really made me love extreme metal was Dusk and Her Embrace by Cradle of Filth. It blew me away when I heard it, and really pushed me towards seeking out other black metal artists (yeah yeah, Cradle aren't really BM, but in 1997 they were often mentioned in the same breath as bands like Darkthrone and Mayhem). I'll always love the feeling that Dusk brings about...

It was Exhumed's Gore Metal (to best of my fuzzy knowledge). This was when I was stationed in Southern California, and pretty much was just listening to whatever was in Revolver magazine. It wasn't until I got introduced to the now-dead Metal Forum on Myspace during that time. The aforementioned album was being discussed, so I came here...and saw the fucking awesome album art, blind-ordered the album (not knowing the use of Youtube) and never looked back (until my collection got stolen during the summer of 09 and went through so many phases, before starting my collection all over again 6 months ago).

man that really sucks your collection got stolen! how many cd's? I would kill if anyone touched collection, exhumed are awesome it's really cool it was your first extreme album!

It was about 360 or so. Ever since I started collecting metal on an almost exclusive basis, I'm about a third of the way there. It sucks having to rebuy a lot of it, but it's cool I've discovered some lost gems along the way.

_________________

ANationalAcrobat wrote:

Viking metal and pagan metal aren't legitimate sub-genres. People need to get over themselves and admit that.

Pfah. I can't really recall. My first cd i bought was Obituary's Slowly we rot in 1990. I just got a cd player back then. Before that i had tapes of Sodom (Agent Orange and Persecution Mania). A copied Sinister demo behind the first Paradise Lost album.And Carcass' Symphonies.... But i believe the very first i heard were the first two Napalm Death albums.

The first ever extreme metal album I heard was The Sound of Perseverance. If we get more specific, the first black metal album I bought was IX Equilibrium, but I feel like I also bought In the Nightside Eclipse at the same time. But I definitely listened to IX Equilibrium first.

I suppose it was At the Heart of Winter by Immortal (still my favorite Immortal release). Before that, I listened to a lot of Amon Amarth, Slayer, and power metal--after that, I plunged head first into the second wave of black metal and have never looked back.

I suppose it was At the Heart of Winter by Immortal (still my favorite Immortal release). Before that, I listened to a lot of Amon Amarth, Slayer, and power metal--after that, I plunged head first into the second wave of black metal and have never looked back.

Awesome first album to hear man! ATHoW is still one of my favorite albums ever! the riffs are just epic!

The first "true" extreme metal I heard was I believe Hammer Smashed Face by Cannibal Corpse. I do remember hearing Evil Dead by Death for the first time around the same time, but it still took me a little while to become as completely entranced with Death and death metal as a whole as I am now.

In high school my friend bought Possessed's 'Seven Churches' on a whim, probably based on the front cover and song titles. We listened to it and thought it was horrible, and that was the first extreme metal album I ever heard. In retrospect I wonder if he didn't know a little more about that album than I did, because it seems quite a coincidence that he would buy such an important album by accident, as it were.

Some time later, I bought 'Blackwater Park', which was the first time I deliberately encountered harsh vocals. Overcoming that hurdle was the beginning of greater things. After that, it was Emperor's 'Prometheus', then Immortal's 'Sons of Northern Darkness'. The rest is lost to the mists of time.

In high school my friend bought Possessed's 'Seven Churches' on a whim, probably based on the front cover and song titles. We listened to it and thought it was horrible, and that was the first extreme metal album I ever heard. In retrospect I wonder if he didn't know a little more about that album than I did, because it seems quite a coincidence that he would buy such an important album by accident, as it were.

Some time later, I bought 'Blackwater Park', which was the first time I deliberately encountered harsh vocals. Overcoming that hurdle was the beginning of greater things. After that, it was Emperor's 'Prometheus', then Immortal's 'Sons of Northern Darkness'. The rest is lost to the mists of time.

Awesome mini story! my question is how do you like "Seven Churches" now? is it nestalgic?

Oh, I love 'Seven Churches' now! That's why it's so funny to me. Back then I was very Christian and it scared me, not to mention just sounding like noise. My friend and I both were Christians as a matter of fact, but he had a strange sense of humor, leading him to buy that album. (He later apostatized, even earlier than I did.) I wish I was still in contact with him. I'd like to find out if he likes it now too, haha.

I think my first extreme album was diSEMBOWELMENT's Transcendence into the Peripheral or one of the first 2 Skepticism full-lengths, I don't quite remember which one it actually was, but I was coming from a background of classic rock and some of the more trad. doom metal, so I decided to explore the extremes of doom first.

I've had a very slow gradual introduction through metals extremities...

Some wouldn't classify them as 'extreme'... I wouldn't either these days back back in 1991 when I first heard Slayer's - Reign In Blood trust me... it was pretty fuckin' extreme to my ears... I hated it... it was just a horrible noise... how times change, it now sounds like Bon Jovi in comparision to most of the shit I listen to haha...

I don't know what the first I ever heard was, but it was probably around 2003 (after being into metal since 2000-2001). The first extreme metal genres that I was into was symphonic and very melodic black metal, some of my earliest favorites being the bands Dimmu Borgir, Graveworm and Alghazanth.

I might have liked Satyricon's Volcano before that. I at least remember Volcano as being an album that was completely different from what I had listened to earlier, and the first somewhat ordinary black metal album that I liked.

My first was Laid to Rest by Lamb of God, back in December 2008 when a kid in my shop class in high school told me what he was listening to, and I tried it when I got home. Got into more of the band's stuff, then etc. That also eventually lead me into discovering Cannibal Corpse via YouTube's Related Videos thing, and then so forth; that's how I got into death metal, and then later on black metal after I found Dimmu Borgir.

Edit: Sorry; I didn't see "album" in the title and thought we were just talking about songs. I never actually listened to full albums for a few years until I joined Last.FM in March 2011. Then, I believe my first extreme album was probably something by Xasthur or Wolves in the Throne room. But I don't remember :L

I'd love to blast a bit of Voivod and make a better-looking gun turret to glue on the tortoise's shell to make it look like Killing Technology, but the wife won't let me. I think I'll get an Emperor penguin instead.

Propably Immortal's Battles in the North. Though it didn't have much staying power in me. I tend to like newer Immortal (from AtHoW onwards) more these days. But still it was an important album for me. Before that I only knew Metallica and Iron Maiden.

I received my first pack of "extreme" metal during my first year in high school (ca. 13-14 years old) through a friend. The four albums were Absu's Third Storm of Cythraul (didn't quite like it back then, thought it was too "raw"), Forgotten Woods' The Curse of Mankind (was kinda intrigued but still didn't totally buy into it), Amon Amarth's Once Sent from the Golden Hall (loved it!) and Old Man's Child's Revelation 666 (really liked it). At that time I was still listening to lots of Pantera, Metallica, Maiden and regular well-known heavy metal, but these four albums were the first that somewhat contributed to my eventual delving deeper into realms of more "extreme" metal. The funny thing is that nowadays Absu's and Forgotten Woods' albums are one of my absolute favorites, but I don't care much about AA and OMC's full lengths anymore .

If it counts (for its time it certainly did), then Mercyful Fate's Melissa. In 1984, I was looking for anything that seemed like Black Sabbath, and the LP cover and song titles fit the bill. By the time my friend & I heard "ALL HAIL SATAN" during "Black Funeral", we were like "Holy shit this is the real deal!!". It was fucking freaky to me, but the music, though ballsy, was accessible so I loved the album straight off and went looking for other bands that were considered blatantly evil.

The first 'other' band I discovered was Venom, in which I bought Welcome To Hell & Black Metal. They took a bit of time to get into, and I remember the poems on the back of those LPs really put off some of my buds. I still consider those albums pretty extreme. Seven Churches and Hell Awaits I bought a year after that (late 1985 or something).

"Dusk and Her Embrace" by Cradle of Filth, when I was 13. There are some cool answers like "Venom and Mercyful Fate when they were new", but I'm only 25 years old, sooo.... Not the best album in the world, but I do still listen to it from time to time. Funeral in Carpathia is an awesome song. The rest...meh. I loved it back then, though.

It was Reign in Blood, and to be honest I thought it was fucking crap. Later I got into thrash metal like Megadeth and Metal Church and then I started appreciating Slayer, but honestly I prefer their other albums.

For me it was Ride The LightningIt was incredible. The speed, the rage, the complexity (for me in that time, i was accostumed to Glam/Hard bands) it was totally new, and i like it. It was my first approach with music whose lyrics are mainly violence and hate, something that i like since child.